Chapter 7
"Mom!" Kiora and Rowena yelled excitedly as they rushed over to greet their mother. The two had been making bracelets out of some thread when the green woman walked into the room.
"Hey girls." Elphaba smiled down at her children before giving them hugs. "Where's Ella?" Elphaba looked around the room expecting her other daughter to be there.
Kiora and Rowena both shrugged their shoulders before resuming their task of making bracelets. Elphaba went over and joined them on the carpet.
"These are very pretty." The green woman said as she began to play with some of the already formed bracelets. In fact, they were only mediocre but what else do you expect out of 7 year olds. She smiled as she noticed the colors on one of the bracelets: pink and green.
"Thanks." Ro was the first to respond. "Do you want us to make you one?" She glanced down at the bracelets already made. None of them were the right size to fit their mother.
"That would be nice." Elphaba smiled as she put the bracelet back down into the pile.
"Are you still mad at us?" Kiora frowned slightly as she remembered the fight that her parents had had earlier in front of them. She was only 7 but she couldn't help feeling that their magic was a part of why her parents were going to divorce. It saddened her greatly but what could she do? She was 7.
Elphaba frowned because the truth was she wasn't mad at her children. She embraced their use of magic; she just wished they wouldn't be so careless with their skills. "Girls," Elphaba began and so both Kiora and Rowena looked towards her. "I am not mad that you have magic nor that you decide to practice it. I am upset that you do so unsupervised. Anything could have happened to you yesterday. What if you reappeared into an unfamiliar place? Your mother and I have told you all countless times that magic can be dangerous. I wish that you would heed our warnings." Elphaba sighed. She knew that magic was a gift, but it could also be a curse to those who don't know how to control it. She herself wasn't able to control hers and look what happened. She was branded as a wicked witch and had all of Oz looking for her.
Kiora and Rowena both looked towards the ground. They hated when they disappointed or upset their mother. "We're sorry." The girls both said in unison. There was no question that they were twins the way they completed each other's sentences or spoke at the same time.
Elphaba could see the regret in her children's eyes so she believed that they truly were sorry. "Come here." Elphaba opened up her lap and Kiora crawled on one leg and Rowena the other. "Geez." Elphaba groaned, "You guys are almost getting too big for this." She smiled down at her girls. It seemed like yesterday they had been learning to drink out of a sippy cup. Now they were getting big and could even read and write. She had missed the first year of the girl's life and that still saddened her to this day. She had always wanted to experience having a baby and watching them grow. Some bastard in a crowd of Ozians had taken that experience from her before. That's why when Glinda lost the baby it had been really hard on Elphaba. She thought that she would get to experience the first 12 months of a baby's life for the first time. She had 3 kids but she never got to experience the infant stage. Not really at least.
At the saddened expression on their mother's face Rowena tried to lighten the mood. "We aren't that big! Ella is much bigger." The blonde child huffed.
"Yeah she is a giant." Kiora agreed shaking her head enthusiastically.
This worked as the green woman began to laugh. "Your sister is growing rather tall these days." It was true too. Ella had gone through a growth spurt in the past 6 months and was almost as tall as Glinda. 11 year olds really shot up fast.
The girls continued to remain in their mother's lap as they resumed their work on the bracelets. It was around four in the afternoon before Elphaba had to leave. Her legs had gone numb hours ago but she was content to stay with her girls for as long as possible. She really did love them and would do anything for them.
"Here you go mama." Rowena handed over a bracelet she had been working on before Elphaba left the room. "I hope you like it." The blonde smiled before going back to tidy up their play area. The kids had made so many bracelets that their fingers were starting to go numb.
"Thank you." Elphaba smiled as she walked out the door with her bracelet in hand. She began to walk down the long corridor when she looked down at the work of art her daughter had made. There were 5 colors of thread on the bracelet and some beads with writing. The green woman stopped walking as she studied the bracelet intensely. The first thread was a light pink followed by a dark green. Then came another pink thread although the shade was different than the first. It was a little darker. Next came two threads of light green, honeydew melon color. Elphaba smiled at the colors her daughter had chosen. Flipping over the bracelet Elphaba could see the word family written out in 6 different beads. The green woman's eyes began to glisten as unshed tears made their way to the surface. She gripped the bracelet closer to her heart and whispered an unspoken prayer that her family would be okay and that this divorce would not tear them apart too much.
Slipping the bracelet onto her wrist she made her way down the corridor to go find Ella.
XXX
Ella was sitting on the bench outside when Elphaba finally found her. It had been the same bench that her and Glinda had been talking on that morning.
"Hey there kiddo." Elphaba smiled as she approached the bench where her adopted daughter sat. She no longer thought of her as adopted though. Ella was as much a part of her as her other two daughters.
Ella looked up from the trance she was in to see the woman who had married her mother standing there. She didn't smile back.
Elphaba could sense something was wrong and so she took a seat on the bench facing Ella. "What's wrong sweetheart?" The green woman tried to reach out her hand to rub the back of her daughter. Ella flinched at the touch and got up from the bench. She didn't want to sit next to Elphaba. "Woah, did I do something wrong here?" The green woman was offended. Ella had never pushed her away like this.
"You are breaking this family apart." Ella yelled back towards the bench. "You came into our family years ago saying that you loved us and that you'd never leave. What changed? Why are you leaving?" Ella seethed. She really had grown up in the past few years. She was only a year and a half away from becoming a teenager.
Elphaba was taken aback by the yelling from her daughter. She had never seen Ella so angry. I mean sure there were tantrums along the way but this was different. "Ella Rosalie Thropp-Upland." The green girl demanded. "That is no way to speak to your mother."
"Then it's a good thing you're not my mother." Ella threw back. The 11 year old was on fire. She was upset at everything. Upset that her parents were divorcing, upset that no one let her know before now, upset that Elphaba still claimed to care, upset that she would have to choose sides.
Elphaba blanched when Ella said those few words. They were the words she had never wanted to hear from the child. "Ella, please calm down." Elphaba suggested as she stood from the bench. She still towered a good 6 inches over the child giving her the slight advantage.
"Me calm down?" Ella laughed at such an absurd comment. "How come you and mom never seemed to calm down when you fought? You know where I learned to fight Elphaba? From you and my mother. Or should I even call you Elphaba? I can't call you mom anymore because you aren't. Do you want me to call you Iris? Is that it? Do you want to start another life built off of lies? You have done nothing but lie to us since you got here. You lied about whom you were and you lied about your feelings towards us. I was too young to know any better back then but I do now. I wish you would have stayed dead." And with that the 11 year old stormed off leaving Elphaba speechless.
It took a few moments for the green woman to process everything her child had just said to her. She was in disbelief that Ella, her Ella, had been so hateful and harsh. When did she learn to be so mean and jab so hard?
"Shit…" Elphaba thought as she came up with the answer. "She was right…she learned to fight from me and Glinda." The green woman's eyes began to tear up as she sat for a few more minutes at the bench. She didn't even have the will to keep the tears in. She let them flow freely as she continued to look towards the entrance hall that Ella had escaped to. "What have I done?" Elphaba continued to cry as the sun began to set.
XXX
Ella stormed off into the main entrance hall where Elphaba had once been shot long ago. She was too young to remember but she had heard stories over the years of her father trying to sneak in and Elphaba being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Her heart stuttered as she thought about what would have happened had Elphaba died that day. She wouldn't have her sisters. She loved Kiora and Rowena and was thankful everyday for them. Her resolve began to falter the farther she got from the bench out front. Had she really been that mean to Elphaba, the woman who had cared for her most her life?
Just as Ella was about to turn around to apologize she heard a whisper coming from the right side of the chamber.
"Psst." The whisper got louder. "Psst…little girl, over here." The figure continued to call out coaxing the child to come closer.
Curiosity got the better of Ella and so she went over to see what was going on. "Hello?" She called out into the abyss. There were a couple of pillars blocking her eyesight from the right corner where she heard the noise coming from. "Hello? Is anyone there?" She called again before walking closer to the shadow. Just as she was about to peek around the pillar to check she felt an arm reach out and cup her mouth. She tried to scream to no avail. Her voice was muffled by the person's hand. Ella's eyes began to get wide in realization of what was happening.
"Keep quiet little girl and we won't hurt you." The voice continued to hiss. The voice belonged to a male; the grip he had on Ella was not allowing her to escape.
"Hhhhhmmpp" Ella screamed although it was too muffled to be heard. She thrashed her legs around trying to free herself but was unable to do so. Was she being kidnapped? Was she going to be killed? Tears began to stream down the 11 year olds face.
"Dex!" A voice called out next to the attacker. He wasn't alone apparently. "Let's go before they find out she's gone." Astor came into view as she began to put rope around Ella's legs and hands binding them together.
"Just wait a minute. This bitch is stronger than I thought." Dexter struggled against holding Ella down. He needed at least one arm free to transport them out of the castle the same way they had come in.
Ella began to cry harder as she thought about what was going to happen to her. She was so sorry for ever being mean to Elphaba. What if she died and that's the last thing the green woman heard from her? She continued to fight.
"Damn she is strong." Dex said again as Ella flayed around some more. "Give me that bottle will you?" The man pointed to a bottle than Astor had brought with her. The woman smiled evilly as she handed over the contents of the bottle.
"Drink up sunshine." Dexter smiled as he removed the cloth from Ella's mouth careful to plug her nose and immediately replace the cloth with the bottle.
Ella tried to refuse but she couldn't breath. Her eyes began to droop as her air supply dwindled. She would pass out before she drank anything. Just before Ella passed out she felt cool liquid go down her throat. It was too late.